GSL Season One
Code S

All Over Again
Life
1000 Days Later
PartinG

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Zealously

How fortuitous that Life's second Code S finals comes at a time such as this. His first appearance in October 2012 capped off the first Royal Road championship in SC2 history. As many will remember, the Season 4 finals pitted the ultimate child prodigy against the most wizened player in the game. Life and Mvp epitomized opposites in real time strategy archetypes: Life was the preternatural, lightning-fast player seemingly driven by instinct, making up decisions based on perception instead of any concrete thought process. Mvp was the famed leader who had seen it all because he made it all, a Brood War veteran propelled into the spotlight by his unrivaled understanding of the game's intricacies. To be sure Mvp and Life shared a number of common features. Yet their situations created a narrative wonder, a pitch-perfect contrast made for headlines.

Given how well documented Life's peak was, I shouldn't have to tell you that there are many similarities between late 2012–early 2013 and late 2014–early 2015. Both times he originated as a strong opponent but was ultimately dismissed as a potential champion; the first time he was a greenhorn without an impressive pedigree, the second time due to his race's weakness and a string of unimpressive results. Both times, Life established himself as the best Zerg player in the world through the ability to eke out improbable wins. BlizzCon 2014 was his second Cinderella story, an unexpected championship sprung from underestimation of Life's prowess. Neither Zest nor TaeJa saw Life coming and they paid for it by losing narrow series.

Adapting to the opponent, AKA putting your production facilities near them

At this point, it might feel forced to keep selling Life's adaptability as one of his greatest assets. However, it really cannot be stressed enough how instrumental his ability to evolve has been to continued success. His failure to do so in mid-2013—commonly credited to waning interest in the game— led to his subsequent year-long slump. The striking aspect of that period was how he was forced to throw away the majority of his tools in exchange for new ones. 10 pool could no longer be used as a safe pressure option in ZvT; the fast speedling timing versus 3 CC hellion, which he made standard at the end of WoL, was now easily scouted by reaper openings; 2 base muta in ZvZ phased in and out of popularity on Blizzard's whim; successfully handling lategame Protoss required a new approach that took Life years to figure out. He only began to reclaim his former glory when he adopted the same attitude that defined his pre-WoL glory: perfect the ideas of his contemporaries, devise new strategies to beat the theoretical counters, and do it all with a blasé attitude.

Admittedly, Life's decision making in a vacuum is not impressive enough to merit distinction in itself. Keeping in step with his whipsnap philosophy, it ranges from incredible to moronic. What Life has is an ability to make good decisions en masse, chaining together a series of incremental choices that let him slip out of the jaws of defeat. Ever since BlizzCon, this trait has been tested in various ways. The assault began with ForGG's unique mech style besting him at Dreamhack Winter, continued with Dear and Classic's slightly different approaches, and most recently hit him in the form of Dream's 4-3 semifinals victory in NSSL. All of them attacked different parts of Life's armor, forcing him to bend out of shape in order to adapt to either a unique style or to cope with the impeccable micro of an opponent. It is an almost cyclical process, one that we've witnessed before. Dream's unrelenting bio aggression is reminiscent of 2013 Innovation and the play that first dethroned Life, and ForGG's banshee-heavy mech style a bane to Life's play much the same way Mvp's hellion-centric style was in 2012.

They share the commonality of all having ended in Life's defeat, but also in that Life subsequently rebounded and ironed out the flaws. In the case of ForGG, Life effortlessly shut him out 3-0 the next time they played. In the case of Dream, Life compensated by beating Innovation - often referred to as the TvZ player - in the GSL quarterfinals. Life comes to the finals looking not nearly as perfect or as unbeatable as he did when he walked on stage to face Mvp almost 30 months ago. His semifinals against herO did nothing to raise confidence in his play, displaying the full range of weaknesses and decision making woes Life currently suffers from.

But his opponent is a known quantity. Against PartinG, Life knows what he will be facing. The Flash Wolves Protoss is an opponent he has faced and beaten (and been beaten by) many times before. Life and PartinG may be 15-15 and their current Aligulac ranks #1 and #2 respectively, but this match-up currently favors Life. Not so much because he has the perfect skillset and style to optimally counter Parting's standard play, but because Life is the kind of player who proactively deals with such play. He was one of the few innovators that put a stop to the Soul Train once and for all, figuring out the necessary timings and tactics to reduce the 'WonWonWon' into a situational build. Life did so almost on the fly, not dropping a single map to the infamous all-in during the Blizzard Cup finals.

As a competitor, Life is not unique. He has the same boundless hunger for success and victory that most elite athletes across sports share. He wins by routine, with a kind of apathy that is only very infrequently broken by emotions. He possesses confidence in his own abilities stemming from the knowledge that there are few players in the world that can compare to him. Parting is largely the same in this regard. He possesses many of the traits that make Life one of the best players in the world, but he does not have the same edge that Life does. Everything about Parting's approach to the competition (except, that is, his flamboyant behavior) is a slightly toned-down version of his old Startale teammate. This does not make him any worse of a player, but it makes me question Parting's fortitude in a situation where everything is on the line. A situation where Life, much more often than not, thrives.


Defeating three Terrans on his way, Life innovated ZvT on the fly to win MLG Winter

For all his strengths, Parting lacks the instinctive understanding that defines Life. He has the hunger for victory, but it is not as ravenous as that of the player who has just been robbed of his chance at making Starcraft history by winning the three grandest tournaments in the world. He lacks the desire for revenge that stems from two extremely important losses over the last few weeks, and comes to the finals with the finals alone in mind.

The Protoss is driven, but not as driven as the Zerg.

When Life walks on stage to face Parting tonight, he is a bleeding man. Stricken, beaten, but not down. Life has faced severe adversity before -- in the form of a slump most thought was irrecoverable -- and come out stronger. It does not matter how many times you beat Life, because the learning experience only serves to make him stronger. It is impossible to say if he will adapt now, return stronger in an hour to win another championship, or if he will need longer. But what I can say for certain is that Life does not lose three times in a row.

by Destructicon

Despite reaching the GSL finals so late in his career, PartinG has been one of the most proven and dangerous players in Korea for years. Beginning his ascend in 2012 he distinguished himself as a brilliant team league opponent, all-killing PRIME in IPTL and IM in GSTL. He also showed exceptional promise in individual leagues, reaching the quarterfinals in his first Code S appearance; he lost to the eventual champion DRG.

But what got people speaking in reverent tones was his reinvention of PvT. Throughout 2011 and the early months of 2012, it was assumed that the colossus was the mandatory backbone of a mid-lategame army. Air units were out of the discussion, immortals were rendered harmless by medivacs, and high templar were regarded as unreliable supplements at best. The only exception had been during a short stretch in spring 2011, the period where San bounded from gutter trash to superstar. He abused the implications of khaydarin amulet to create a revolutionary playstyle, one that avoided the pitfalls of the colossus' build time and inability to protect vulnerable bases. On the other hand, PartinG and his teammate Squirtle lacked access to instant storms. Their collaborative revision was less reactive, aiming to exploit gaps between standard Terran bio timings instead of brute-forcing through them. Squirtle himself never embraced the new invention, preferring precise 2 base colossus timings instead.

In time it became apparent that his amazing PvT was a limited panacea. No Terran wanted to face PartinG in a macro game, but PartinG wasn't eager to face the other races in the same scenario. PvZ was, and remains, a matchup that frustrated him to no end. In response he made his second major contribution to SC2 history, perfecting an sentry/immortal build so successful that it earned the moniker "Soul Train". Despite its reliability against all levels of opponents, it often failed against those who entered a series fully expecting it. Furthermore, PartinG never translated his ingenuity into consistent GSL results. After hitting the Ro4 in Season 2 he cooled down, falling out of the Ro32 twice in a row and hitting the Ro16 wall in Season 5.

PartinG's true potential remained apparent outside of the GSL. During the inaugural WCS season he established himself as one of the top Protosses in the world: he took 3rd place in the WCS: South Korea Nationals, 2nd in the WCS: Asia Finals and outfoxed Creator to win the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Securing his WCG Finals title catapulted PartinG into discussion as one of the elite pantheon in SC2 history. In the minds of many, he was undoubtedly one of the best players of Korea. In his short time PartinG had achieved more than most would during an entire career, and there was still untapped promise remaining. Observers wondered how prominent he would become if he fixed all the holes in his play. Clearly PartinG was insanely ambitious, and he was chafing under the relaxed standards of StarTale's practice regimen. Bravado aside, he needed an organization who would push him out of his comfort zone. If only he could be forced to put all his focus on improvement and preparation, then a GSL trophy would be within reach.

The move to SKT1 seemed like a slamdunk proposition, one that would benefit both sides. However, PartinG's previous struggles was partially resolved at the expense of new ones. The first and most baffling was his new teammate soO, who denied PartinG advancement in two back-to-back GSLs. No matter what PartinG did he couldn't make it work vs soO, compiling a 3-10 game record across 4 WCS encounters. His consistency in the GSL improved at the expense of exposure; outside of some precommitments like IEM Katowice, he never attended a foreign tournament without an invitation. As the sybaritic effects of KeSPA catering became apparent, his own play started looking more and more anemic. Perhaps he was frustrated over his failure to improve as much as he anticipated; maybe he missed the opportunities of performing before foreign audiences In any case, PartinG decided a change was in order. Soon after the conclusion of 2014 Proleague he left SKT1 and joined yoe Flash Wolves. The Taiwanese team may have lacked the exemplary teammates and organizational structure of PartinG's old team, but it happily offered to send him to new foreign venues in exchange.

In hindsight it looks like the correct decision. Since joining Flash Wolves PartinG has enjoyed similar publicity to what he had on StarTale, winning HomeStory Cup X along with great finishes at MSI Beat IT and IEM Taipei. With his ultimate goal in sight, PartinG will pull out every trick to claim the trophy. But before he can claim the piece de resistance, he must overcome the last demon.



Writer Predictions

Zealously: Life 4 - 1 Parting
Jer99: Life 4 - 2 Parting
Soularion: Life 4 - 2 Parting
Gemini: Life 3 - 4 Parting
stuchiu: Life 4 - 2 Parting
Destructicon: Life 2 - 4 Parting
banjoetheredskin: Life 4 - 2 Parting

Writers: Zealously, Destructicon,
Editors: CosmicSpiral
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photo: Silverfire.